Consumer Goods and Medical

Consumer goods production should grow, while medical equipment production continues to slow.

Article Post: 10/1/2015

Steven Kline, Jr.

Chief Data Officer, Gardner Business Media

Consumer Goods Production Should Grow, Leading to Increased Demand for Molds
Real disposable income in June was $12,176 billion (seasonally adjusted at an annual rate), growth of 3.0 percent compared with one year earlier. This was an all-time high for real disposable income, but it was the slowest rate of month-over-month growth in incomes since September 2014. This also was the first month of below-average income growth since September 2014. Disposable income has been growing at an accelerating rate since June 2014. The annual rate of change ticked up to 3.2 percent in June.

As a result of the accelerating growth in disposable income, real consumer goods spending has grown at an accelerating rate for most of the last three years as well. Recently, the rate of growth has flattened at a rate just below the fastest rate of growth over the past eight years or so.

Despite the accelerating growth in consumer goods spending, consumer goods production has experienced decelerating growth for most of the last year. While the rate of growth has slowed, it is still fairly strong compared with the last 15 years. Consumer goods production should grow faster in upcoming months based on the trends in incomes and consumer goods spending.